Poker Face
by wildsky
Summary: With the Daedalus being powered up and down like a twitchy laptop, two new recruits find a way to pass the time. Keller and Cadman friendship.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own 'em (unless they're originals). Please don't sue me. It's so not worth it.

**A/N:** This is set during the events of 2.02. The Intruder.

**Poker Face**

**by Wildsky**

Jennifer has never been an easy flier. The five hour journey from Baltimore to Minneapolis' St. Paul airport always makes her nervous. White-knuckled, her father calls her. So when she's offered a challenging and highly-classified job in a faraway place, she figures she can just take a mild sedative for the duration of the trip and arrive with her anxiety at a reasonable level.

Jennifer doesn't find out until a week after she's signed the forms committing her to a blind one-year term that said trip will be eighteen days long and involve intergalactic travel on a vessel so big it makes her eyes bug out – an honest-to-God freakin' spaceship! Suddenly the Boeing she's been dreading seems like a cakewalk.

Until things start going wrong. Rumours abound that someone has been killed while working on the Daedalus' systems. She and the other civilians are confined to quarters for several hours and when they're finally released to mill around in the mess hall, the voice of the man in charge comes over the PA system and Jennifer's heart really starts hammering.

"All personnel, prepare for impact."

She did not sign up for this. Jennifer takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment before exhaling.

"Hey. You okay over there?" The question comes from a redhead in a uniform that identifies her as a Marine, one of the officers keeping the scientists calm. She looks politely concerned when Jennifer's grip on the sides of the chair she's sitting on tightens convulsively.

"I'm fine," Jennifer replies but her voice comes out as a squeak and the Marine – her name is Cadman by the tag on her uniform – smiles and slides into the seat next to her.

"First time on a spaceship?" Cadman asks facetiously and Jennifer laughs a little, thinking she sounds a bit hysterical. Maybe taking a pill is a good idea after all?

"How could you tell?" It's a tiny bit sarcastic but Cadman doesn't seem to mind. Jennifer has never been the adventurous type. She doesn't do things like this and even now she can't quite figure out why the hell she lost her mind and signed those forms. She'd been happy at Johns Hopkins, comfortable in their state-of-the-art E.R. and very much in her element. The Chief of Surgery's jaw had literally dropped when she'd told him what she'd done.

"Don't sweat it," Cadman advises. "These things are like cars. Every so often you have to pull over and make adjustments so it all runs smoothly."

"Yeah, except out here you can't call Triple-A," Keller says unsteadily, wishing she was back in her father's house in Chippewa Falls.

Cadman laughs softly. "The crew on this baby are the Triple-A," she says with confidence. "Best of the best. If they can't fix it, no-one can."

"That's not as reassuring as I think you think it is," Jennifer admits, trying to unfurl the knot in her stomach. It means that it something goes wrong that can't be fixed, they'll die. Simple as that.

Cadman tilts her head, studying her for a few seconds, and pulls a box of cards out of one of her many pockets and twirls it between her fingers.

"You know how to play poker?"

Jennifer shakes her head mutely.

"Now that is something I can fix," Cadman grins and unsheathes the deck. She cranes her head backwards, tilting the chair onto two legs, and glances around the room. "Anyone up for a poker game?"

A few murmurs of interest meet the invitation and soon there's a group of seven including Jennifer sitting around the table and several others spectating. Cadman is dealing the cards, staying by Jennifer's side to coach her through it. None of the other soldiers bat an eye at such behaviour. If anything they relax a little, as if Cadman has punched through a tension barrier by bringing some amusement to the masses.

Jennifer forces herself to pay attention to Cadman as she explains the basics and is gratified to learn she's not the only beginner in the group. Another redhead, her hair much darker than Cadman's, is concentrating very hard on the instructions the Lieutenant is giving to the novices.

"I'm Katie," she introduces herself shyly and she and Jennifer huddle to help each other against the more experienced players.

It doesn't completely ease Jennifer's anxiety but as she picks up the rhythm of the game and gets a feel for the rules, she manages to stop worrying quite so much about being stuck on a flying tin can in the middle of an intergalactic void. Cadman and Katie chat to her all the while, asking about where she's from and what her specialty is, and the others join in.

It's a heady experience to be among people whose minds work as quickly as her own. Jennifer has always been ahead of the class by a mile, outstripping everyone around her without much effort and held apart from them for the same reason. She settles into the conversation, listening to Katie talk about her PhD dissertation and Cadman recount a story about her time at the Naval Academy, and starts to relax for the first time since discovering science-fiction isn't fiction.

Maybe Atlantis won't be so bad after all.


End file.
